By Victor Chen, bostonese.com
Boston, Jan. 24, 2014, –In his column Next Week’s Bloodbath At IBM Won’t Fix The Real Problem in forbes.com, long-time silicon valley journalist Robert X. Cringley said he learned about the Project Chrome, the largest “transformation” in IBM’s 103-year history around Christmas time. He suggested that over 26% of over 400,000 IBM employees worldwide could be notified the layoffs starting the week of January 26.
China Press’ report of IBM’s Centennial Celebration in June 2011(file photo).
“One in four IBMers reading this column will probably start looking for a new job next week. Those employees will all be gone by the end of February,” wrote Mr. Cringley. It’s hard to believe that the inventor of modern computer and PC would have been mismanaged to such a degree that massive layoffs becomes necessary.
Over past few years, IBM has ongoing layoffs, or resource action in management terms, in small scale. Littleton, Mass. is the home of one of the largest IBM software labs with over 2,000 software developers working there. In past layoffs, employees were notified 30-days before termination date, and the layoff package included two-week pay for each year worked at IBM.
Alliance@IBM, IBM employee’s union, issued the following statement about media reports about upcoming layoffs.
“Various members of the media are picking up on Robert Cringley’s assertion that 100,000 IBMers will lose their jobs next week in a massive reorg at IBM. The Alliance has no information that this is true and we are urging caution on reporting this number as fact. But as you all know, anything can happen at IBM anymore and this is the time of year that IBM cuts jobs. Our job cuts reports section is filled with employee comments on being downgraded in their work evaluations (PBC) and slated for individual firings. We do believe this number will be high and it will be used to circumvent any requirement of a WARN notification. To follow the comments go here: www.endicottalliance.org/jobcutsreports.php If job cuts do happen, be sure to follow our web site and we will keep you informed.”